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Sweet amp. Took posession of this little beaut from @Pete24v on Friday (smooth deal, nice guy) and had the weekend to run it through its paces. Came with a nice Roqsolid cover that's significantly more substantial than the Bag for Life thing that Laney supply.
Slightly pre-empted a NAD thread with a discussion about modding the effects loop in another thread, but first impressions are very positive. Very cool looks, awesome clean and low/mid gain sounds, plenty of volume, reasonably portable. Neat tilt-back mechanism on the bottom and decent construction throughout (and believe me, I do mean throughout, I had to take it to bits. Read on...)
My major gripe- crappy parallel effects loop that means that using digital effects without analogue dry signal causes volume drop and a sort of phase-cancelly, chorus-y sound- was rectified with a minor mod, leaving only a couple of minor gripes- no LEDs on the footswitch, so if you use the amp tilted back like I did on Sunday you can't easily see if it's on the clean or drive channel, or if the reverb is on or off. It's also hard to tell whether the reverb is on or off because it's hardly there, even when you wind it right up. Not a massive 'verb user, so not a massive deal. I've got a Behringer reverb pedal I can throw in the loop if I need it.
Had a chance to try it out with my various drive pedals and changed up my pedalboard a little- now using the Lionheart's dirt channel for my core low-gain dirt sound and running:
Guitar -> Polytune Mini -> BYOC Stereo Analogue Flanger -> Foxrox ZIM (fuzzface + tubescreamer) -> LIONHEART <=> Vox Delaylab (loop)
Got a band rehearsal on Thursday, so assuming the Lionheart can cop the sounds I need for the band (pretty sure it can), and works well enough with my lap steel there will be a Cornell Romany Plus in the classifieds shortly.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
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Comments
Glad to hear you like it so far, I had the head version and regret selling it. Quite fancy getting the combo version too, though would have to chop in the HRD instead. As much as I like the cleans on the HRD, the drives on the Lionheart are much better (IMHO)
Be interested to hear what you think of it in a band situation, do let us know!
Laney describe these as something like single channel amps with built in switchable gain, so it's not really two channels.
I played the 2x12 combo briefly at the guitar show on Sunday and I thought it was great, big contrast to the disappointment ( for me ) of the Roland Blues Cube.
Reverb might be the tank, mine isn't over the top but is definitely noticeably there when it's on.
Reverb might be the tank, mine isn't over the top but is definitely noticeably there when it's on.
I'll look out for one of your gigs!
I didn't think there was a 2x12". As far as I know the 20 watt Lionheart comes as a head, 1x12" or 4x10".
On Sunday I was playing with a church band on a fairly big stage. Me with the Lionheart, a bassist with an SWR Bass 350 head and 4x10", a drummer, keys, sax and three singers. I had the Laney on a chair angled back so it was pointing at my head, mic'd for front of house but not in any monitors. It held its own with the volume under halfway.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
My favourite sound out of it is when you get the chance to turn the clean channel over about 7 if you're using single coils, the drive sound is fantastic
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
I thought it was a bit of a monster, I wouldn't have the 2x12 combo.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Well, it went pretty much as expected. The Laney gave me all the tones I wanted (almost...) and had volume to spare. After years of having to boost a too-clean amp with an OD pedal to get the base tone I wanted it was gratifying to hear the sound I wanted coming out of the amp, then look down at my pedalboard and see no lights on. It was even more gratifying to be able to turn everything on for crazy batshit meltdown breaks and get flanger->fuzz->boost->amp dirt->delay insanity.
We spent pretty much the whole evening working on new stuff, which is much more fun than playing old songs (it is when it's going well and people are feeling it anyway), but it doesn't really help to work out whether a new amp can cover the sound of an old one in a familiar setting.
The one place the Laney didn't perform as well as I'd hoped was with my lap steel. The tone of the amp is fine but the reverb is sorely lacking. Turned up almost to full it's not so much wet as moist, and really doesn't get that classic drippy spring reverb sound you want for steel guitar. This was expected, given my first impressions of the Lionheart's reverb and just means dusting off the old reverb pedal (unless there's a simple mod...).
Minor gripe #2- the velcro straps that hold the footswitch in place in the bottom of the amp are too long and caught up together when you remove or replace the footswitch. I know, white people problems.
Altogether a good experience. I don't think it's possible to really get to know any piece of gear really well very quickly, but the Lionheart is shaping up to be a keeper. Compliments from Mr Drummer on my "chunky tone" too.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
I might dig out my old Laney footswitch and use that as it is a chunkier affair than the one supplied with the Lionheart.
First gig will be Easter weekend with added sax player so will have to see if it can cope with a six peice band.